Ilidrake

Rodney if you haven't had a chance, drop over to the Gravedigger post and snag a copy of the trailer script I finished. Overall I'm quite pleased with it's outcome.

Okay Robcat. Do you want me to just send the script via message or email? Or I can zip it up and post it here for you. Oh believe me I am. I have two other candidates available right now. But your recording at the top was really interesting and as I said I have 6 months to work on this. I'm still working on the sets so it's no rush if you can't get to this immediatly. Okay, for anyone who'd like to take a stab at this and have a little fun with the character here is the script zipped up. It's just a text file with the formatting intact. Trailer___Pass_1.txt

Well I'm just going over the script right now, changing and adding to tighten it up. Robcat, I finally have the chance to hear what you recorded and it sounds really good. So if you don't mind could you do it? I really like the roll on the "R"s.... I'll have the script finished in a few days and you can look it over. And this thing is by no means iron clad. If you find something that can be done better by all means let me know. All considerations are taken. Also I'll leave the actual acting of the lines in your hands. I'll simply direct if you don't feel your hitting the emotions right.

Thanks guys. Give me a few days to get things together and ill c which way im gonna go with this.

Ive always thought sean connery. And i do have a script but its short because its only a trailer. I have 6 months to get this done so no big rush just getting the ball rolling.

So my question is can anyone out there on the forums do voices? I need someone who can do an older male character with a scottish accent. I tried doing it myself but my voice just isn't deep enough to pull it off. If your interested just PM or hit me up here. Thanks. Unfortunatly this isn't a payed gig. Though you will get your name in the credits of the trailer once it's uploaded and live.

LOL good eye Nancy! They are in fact from your collection. I couldn't resist using some of them, there such wonderful textures.

True. I think the pants are a little loud LOL. Easy enough to change. I'll play around with some color combinations later. And as a side note the hands are not weighted properly yet so I'm still tweaking those as well.

I finally have Gravedigger rigged and weighted. Here's my first test pose. I was going to use Simcloth for the beard but because of the complexity of the mesh that has been an utter failure. Instead I am simply using bones, although that is barely working. Anyone know of a good way to rig a beard? I thought about rigging it like an arm but I'm not totally sure yet. Still need to give him eyebrows and start setting up phenomes but he's close.

Okay I'm doing a little research into tree roots to see how I can accomplish this transition without making it obvious until the camera comes through the surface. And if you hadn't had a chance take a look at the main forum take a look at Gravedigger textured. I think he looks pretty good.

So here is Gravedigger textured. So far so good. Just need to start the rigging process. Of course there is an issue with his mouth that I have to address so that may delay the process.

Well as I said this was an experimental shot. But there were a few things I was trying to accomplish with this shot. I wanted to project that Latimer's mother does in fact love him. She is overbearing and controlling but not because she is evil or mean. What she does comes out of love for her son. So I kept it low. I could have went closer but I wanted the shot to also give a sense of lonliness or isolation for this woman who lost someone so important to her. Regarding your idea to pull out furthur and then move up that gave me a great idea! When the camera pulls up into tree branches these could actually be tree roots to trees in the Land of the Dead. So the camera pans upward and we think tree branches, and it gets darker and then it breaks through the surface and we see trees and more tombstones and Gravedigger marching along tapping headstones. I think that would be a really creative way to transition the two realms. Now most people would go dwn through the ground but I think this would be much diffrent approach and would give that sense that something just isn't right with the world. Oh ya, I was thinking that this be a private cemetary right behind the family house. This would help depict how well off Latimer's family is.

Loved your first film! Great looking character. Can't wait to see this one too.

Funny you should mention reference pics I've been looking around for a few days and came up with the following images to use for inspiration. These are the best images I could find for what I see in my mind. Consider Corpse Bride as being very inspirational for the look I would like to closely match but not copy. The first 2 images are close to the Land of the Dead and the last would be close to my Living World that I'm seeing.

Well I'm not really looking for ultra-simple because the living side and the dead side graveyards would have to be identical for that to work. Unfortunatly they are nothing a like. That is why I think I may have to do a zoom. Perhaps Latimer's mother lays a red rose on the headstone and we zoom in on that. Then we animate it withering and begin zooming back out to show the graveyard of the dead with Gravedigger tapping on a nearby gravestone. I've included a quick render of a few camera angle i'm experimenting with.

The biggest thing I'm having difficulty with is the transition from the living world and the land of the dead. I'm thinking perhaps we should zoom in on Latimer's tombstone and then having lighting flash and then perhaps zoom out. ..Orrrrr simply have the scene with his parents standing next to the grave with leaves blowing by. Lighting flashes and they are gone and Gravedigger is now sitting on top of the tombstone. He jumps down and begins tapping headstones an the scene continues. What do you think?

No rush. Thanks Rodney.

Well first things first. I'll finish up Gravedigger today and then I'll begin Celopatra. I have Death i just need to change is clothing which won't be difficult at all. Then I'll go through and mock up the sets we'll need. I like the tombstones you were working on. I don't suppose you would mind refining them and making a few variations to use. On a side note I had planned on re-recording the dialogue for Gravedigger but the dental wrk I had done really prevents that for now. If I do re-record it there will be no accent and it'll be pretty lousy right now.

Good stuff. Just for kicks, mainly me and you, the scene where Cleo is throwing a fit in the background of the shot we could have Death standing there. No one but me and you would know but I think an easter egg like that would be funny.

Okay so not getting too far off of the original Gravedigger premise let's see what else we can come up with. Perhaps we can integrate other parts of the movie into our little bit. I suppose by picking key parts of the movie and animating those small sections. Question is though how would we "key" these sections on top of what we already have? I can see doing an entirely diffrent trailer but I really like the one we have now. On another note they also have teaser trailers which is what we in essence are making here.

After I got home from the dentist today I decided to do some research and just watch trailers. Mainly trailers around animated movies. And the one thing that caught my eye about most of them is the amount of plot they give away. They are really good, but they don't give me that, ohhhhhh I gotta see that and find out what it's about, feeling. Maybe it's just me. I had that feeling watching the halo 4 trailer lol...but none from movies. I want people to watch my first trailer and ask themselves, what is that about? what is he talking about? I wonder are there more trailers? When does it come out so I can find out what is going on? Reveal just enough to hook people but not give the entire movie away.

I've been playing around with this using diffrent soundtracks and I can't find anything I like. Care to try?

Thanks Rodney. I've been watching it over and over. The acting is definitly bad. That's me trying to do a scottish. I think perhaps I will re-record the dialogue and see if I can mix it up a bit more to give more insight into what the movie is about. It's 45 seconds long so I can definitly add to it without very many problems. If you yourself would like to break it down and add or take away from it please do.

Okay here's a rough draft of the trailer. And I mean ROUGH lol. I did this after I finished Gravedigger modeling. Had to give my brain a rest. Let me know what you think? I the timing good? Is the dialogue working? Is the music good? Be brutal!!!! output2.mov

LMAO!!! That's funny!!! Nice way to improvise. Ya, I started to go normal legs, but the extra small legs work better.